The Cruz D’ETAT

After so much anticipation as the nation waited for this convention, the week started out relatively smooth. With 5,000 police officers in downtown Cleveland, the protests have been controlled, and the speeches have gone according to plan. Trump even got some big wig party leaders to put down their swords, and come to the convention to support him. Trump has been so invested in this convention, that he made his presence known Monday night. Everything seemed to be happening without any major conflict.

And then, last night, the moment everyone had been waiting for happened. As Trump’s wife, Melania, said, it would not be a Trump campaign if there was not a flair of drama.

It was also hard to believe that after Trump and Cruz campaign attacks on each other reached such a height of ugliness, that one meeting on Capitol Hill healed all wounds, and Cruz would be eager to help his rival out. This sentiment was felt by many, who waited eagerly to see if Cruz would endorse Trump at his own convention. In fact, there were questions to why Cruz refused to endorse Trump, but agreed to speak at the convention.

All these questions were answered last night. After giving a long speech, where Cruz looked and seemed very presidential, he neglected to mention one thing. When he told voters to head out to the polls in November, he said to “vote your conscience” and to vote for someone who upholds the constitution, but he did not say to vote for Donald Trump.

Trump must have been proud that the first people to pick up on this and start to boo were the New York delegates. Before everyone else in the convention hall truly saw what was happening, the New York and California delegates sat down. The only reason I personally thought something was wrong at first was because of this. In his speech, Cruz went off script to address “New York’s enthusiasm.”

And then, at the height of the height of the tension, Donald Trump again broke every status quo and walked into the hall, totally taking away the thunder from Ted Cruz, and turning all eyes from the senator to him. Amidst the boos came cheers, as Trump made his way to go sit with his family in their thrones. It was one of the biggest political power moves I have ever seen. And I would bet anything that it was Trump’s decision to walk into the hall in the middle of Cruz’s speech as he realized that Cruz was not going to endorse him.

The campaign definitely thought Cruz was going to do give his endorsement. Gingirch went off script in his speech. He was supposed to say, “Senator Ted Cruz in particular made the key point that we need to elect the Trump-Pence Republican ticket.” Instead, he spoke about how Cruz is a great orator, and that in a back handed way he did endorse Trump because he said to vote for someone who will “uphold the constitution,” and that is obviously Trump. Gingrich was the best person to address this convention power play, and smooth it over for Trump.

Cruz proved to everyone that he was not afraid of Trump, and that he was not like his colleagues who compromised and endorsed him for president. Cruz is now back in the spotlight in a big way. He is all over the news outlets, and is taking Trump’s thunder on the last day of the convention. There are also question marks about what his future plans may be for November, and beyond.

As Trump has a very good chance of being the next president of the United States, Cruz is going head to head with the man who might be the most powerful man in the United States. And from last night’s move, it is obvious that he does not care. The amount of confidence in his own future, and his career at the moment, is high enough to not join the Trump train. And furthermore, there are a lot of people here who do not want Trump to be the president, and are here to quietly spread this message.

The Trump, Cruz feud reached new heights. We will see if Trump brings it up in his speech tonight, and what Cruz plans to do with the spotlight again on him.